How Social Media Has Implemented Psychology To Entertain Us

Now, you might be confused and wondering what exactly is the link between Social media and gambling! Well, it has all to do with the psychology. Most of the population of the current generation is using social media which somehow has become a source of source of happiness to them.

Phantom Phone Vibration – This refers to the behaviour by the people wherein they think they heard their phone vibrate but when checked, they find no notification. This behaviour of hearing phantom notifications and calls is prominent among social media users. An expert in human behaviour, Professor Daniel Kruger from the University of Michigan links the phantom phone vibration behaviour to psychological cravings. People are so much addicted to social media that their brain begins to hear noises (ringtones) even if there is no noise produced in reality.

Professor Daniel also says that these social media messages have the ability to produce a similar mechanism in the brain as that of cocaine.

Many pieces of evidence are showing that gambling uses similar psychological mechanisms as that of social media to keep the players hitting the online casinos often.

Expectations and Excitement

Both the social media and gambling uses the mechanism of expectations and excitement. The expectation of the reward and excitement of that same reward. People eagerly wait and expect for the reward – in case of gambling, it could be the ball stopping on the set of numbers you bet on online Roulette and in case of social media, the number of likes and appreciative comments on your post- and of course the reward is totally based on chance which is exciting.

Similarities with the ‘Like’ Button

In most of the social media sites, you get to witness the ‘like’ button which has become a way of validation for the users. The post or photo that the users upload on these sites needs to be liked by maximum people for the users to get the assurance and validation of acceptance and happiness. This all comes down to social inclusion.

Many social psychological studies show that social exclusion makes the person experience psychological trauma similar to that of physical pain in humans. Studies show in various online games, some players feel left out when other players getting too much attention because of their wins and their lucky streak.

Social acceptance – Not a new Concept

Social acceptance has been a thing of centuries old. It is not a new concept created by social media. The ill-symptoms related to social exclusion are also an age-old thing. People have been experiencing depression, anxiety and many such psychological issues for a very long time.

Solutions to this Epidemic

If the social media sites and gambling casinos need more of the users then they have to take care of their users as well. There are people who have control over the usage of these sites. But there are other users who have absolutely no control over their actions, especially the young kids. In such cases, these social media platforms can provide some assistance or facility to these users to have a controlled usage of these sites without disrupting the exciting features.